Honestly, companies take out life insurances ALL the time on people (Walmart, Lockheed Martin, etc.) and keep the money for their corporation, not the persons family, if their employee dies.. Learned that from a Michael Moore documentary haha.I have life insurance, my whole family does.. If anything ever happens I want them to be able to pay for funerals and be able to be comfortable and not have to worry about money in an awful time.

I really don't find this too odd or outlandish. As someone above commented, she was probably still a minor when Daddy Joe took out the policy on her. He may have wanted to guarantee, in the event of Jessica's untimely passing, that there would be plenty of funds available to pay off any creditors to her estate. My parents did the same for me when I was a minor and the policy is still active today (and by no means are we affluent). Also, Texas, where the Simpsons are from is a Community Property state. If this was their residence when Papa Joe took out the policy and if something did happen to Jessica and he collected on the policy AND if he and Mama Simpson were still married, Mama Simpson (by Texas Law) would have rights to these funds as community property barring any specific pre or post nuptial agreement. Not sure about California Laws and how they would apply.

Other than not telling Jessica or his wife, how is this any different than an unrelated manager taking out apolicy on a high dollar client? Joe is skeevy in many ways but I don't think that this is one of them.

@FSP – I learned recently that the party does not necessarily need to know that there is a LI policy taken out on them. I had questioned it, because in a lot of cases you have to undergo physicals and what not to determine for how much you can be insured. I'm not sure if it depends on which state you're in, though.

I, personally, would be beyond livid if someone took out a policy on me and didn't tell me. What if that person has a say in if I stay on life support or not? Blood may be blood, but all too often that goes out the window when there's green involved.

The only wrong doing on this one is that he didn't inform all parties. That looks suspect. Also I'm sure Asslee's pretty hurt right now since she didn't warrant the same. But then her only talent is for trying to find a famous guy to hook up with.

General rule: you must have an "insurable interest" in a person to take out a policy. When we've insured people in my family, anything over a certain amount (can't remember the value) requires a physical. But mostly, you can insure close relatives and spouses with no problem.

Jessica's corporation was likely already created at this time, in which case, he could take out "key person insurance." If he's the second shareholder of her company, he would get all of the proceeds. Don't think you have to have a physical for that, but the premiums are higher. These policies are designed to allow one (or more, depending on who is the beneficiaries) shareholder buy out the interest of a deceased shareholder. Her corp would pay the premiums. These are so standard that her accountant likely didn't blink.

Really, the only unusual, and therefore shady, part is that he didn't mention this to his own daughter.

Many parents carry policies on their children. If they are adult children and spouses he other party has to sign off on the policy and have it notarized. It's really not creepy or weird. Many public figures have it set where a patent is a beneficiary and a living will specifically dictating where that money is allocated.

I had a family member die very young and very unexpectedly. My family didn't have $10,000 lying around to pay for the funeral and luckily they were able to get a loan.Long story short, you never know when your time is, and most people do not have the money to afford a funeral so life insurance is for when the time comes, you do not have to worry about finding the money, it's there. You can mourn without worry.

My brother in law has done small insurance policies on his family members without telling people. He once mentioned to me about wanting to take out an insurance policy on my father in law (no relation to my sister-my husbands father), I told him that wasn't right. He looks at it that the guy is going to die because he is elderly so why shouldn't he get money if he pays for the insurance policy? Weird.

Also, when my dad passed away, my mother purchased a paid up life insurance policy for me and for herself–just enough to cover the burial–I used hers for that reason and I still have mine–I am single with no close family so I am grateful she used some of my dad's insurance to do that for us.

Yeah, I remember Michael Moore's doco Sicko about this. I learnt from that doco that people who have insurance policies taken out on them by their companies are referred to as 'dead peasants'. How morbid!

On another note I almost LOLed on the bus when I saw that photo of papa Joe tee hee

Late to the party…but the only stories I have are usually insurance related, so here's one on life insurance. A few years ago, one of our instructors at a continuing ed class on Life and Health told us about a couple of gals in NH who opened their own agency. They wrote primarily life and health insurance, and they managed to have themselves (or at least one of them) added as a beneficiary to the life insurance policies. Sort of a "well, you can list me for now, then change it later once you decide who you want." This happened on a handful of policies.

Many life insurance policies have a "double indemnity" clause – if your death is an accident (fall under a subway, get electrocuted, grand piano falls out of a window) your policy pays double the face value. Within the first year their agency was open, they had four clients die of accidental deaths – and they received $500k per death from the $250k policies they had written.

Turns out they had been giving some younger guy a cut of the money to off these clients in "accidental" ways. Too creepy. They were all caught, and served time in Federal prison.

Re: life insurance for children…my mom took whole life policies for both me and my brother when we were born. The cash value grew over the years, and I was able to use that to put a downpayment on our house. Sometimes life insurance does serve a financial/investment purpose. I'm glad my mom did that for us.

@Cornbread Wow, awesome story! I remember watching a similar story line on an episode of CSI. That's so creepy that innocent people get 'killed' for insurance money. And your mum was really, really smart in doing that. I didn't even know you could. I wish my mum had done that for me!

To the "dead peasants" comment – I think you're probably talking about viatical or settlement companies. Someone needs cash, they sell their policy to one of these companies. The company becomes the owner, and the company essentially acts like a corporation. You've got "stock" in someone's policy. The company may name certain people as the beneficiaries on a policy, or the company is the bene and then they distribute proceeds. Sometimes these settlement companies don't involve any outside parties (the "stockholders") and just make their money on high-dollar policies their owner couldn't afford to pay any more, especially if they're sick or elderly.

It isn't creepy to take insurance on children, or to have a child rider. I see it all the time. I have had to take phone calls from parents whose children died or were killed. (One woman's ex-husband shot and killed their daughter. Like the earlier poster mentioned, she didn't have the 10k handy to bury her teenager.)

Key-person insurance is likely what Joe had for Jessica. It isn't creepy. My dad owns his own business. If he had a partner, they would have policies on one another allowing them to buy one another out. It's to protect the surviving and the business in the case of untimely death.

Source: I've worked in life and health insurance customer service/claims/compliance for almost 9 years and just when I think I've heard everything, I haven't.

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